Senate Finance makes quick work of transpo bill

Thirteen hours of state Senate filibustering and commotion last week delayed a plan to redirect about $1 billion to Texas roads. Tuesday morning, it took the Senate Finance Committee about ten minutes to put the bill back on track.

Texas roads would get about $1 billion annually under a plan approved by state senators Tuesday morning. Photo: Karen Warren, Houston Chronicle

By an 11-0 vote, the committee recommended SJR 1 to the Senate, set to reconvene next week after the long holiday weekend. The plan, by Sen. Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville, would take half of the oil production tax revenues now going to the state’s rainy day fund and shift it to the highway fund. The money, about $850 million based on current revenues, could be used to maintain Texas’ aging highway system and pay down debt on major road projects.

The money can’t be used to incur new debt, and also isn’t entirely guaranteed. To appease House and Senate members in the last session, provisions were added to make sure the rainy day fund was protected. Nichols’ latest bill, filed last week minutes after the second special session was called, stipulates that rainy day fund revenues cannot fall below one-third the allowable limit of the fund, based on the comptroller’s estimates.

This is the second go-round for the bill in as many weeks. Originally SJR 2 in the first session, the Senate failed to approve changes made by the House when the final hours of the session were monopolized by the riotous abortion debate.